Impacts of dosing rumen contents during calf development and its downstream effect on milk production efficiency

• Grant number: 17/11646-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research
• Start date: September 01, 2017
• End date: November 29, 2017
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Animal Husbandry - Animal Nutrition and Feeding
• Principal Investigator: Danilo Domingues Millen
• Grantee: Danilo Domingues Millen
• Host Investigator: Garret Suen
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Tecnológicas. Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Dracena. Dracena , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison), United States

Abstract

The goals of this proposal are to explore this hypothesis by attempting to alter the rumen microbiota in calves during development and assess if this has tangible downstream effects on milk production efficiency. Therefore, the study proposed in this project will have three objectives: 1) Establish three cohorts of calves and perform weekly dosings with rumen contents from birth until weaning; 2) Assess the impact of rumen dosing on calf maturation across development; and 3) Characterize the ruminal microbiota of calves from birth through first lactation to determine if their microbiotas reflect that of their donor rumen contents and are correlated to downstream milk production efficiency. This will be accomplished by dosing cohorts of calves on a weekly basis from birth until weaning with rumen contents obtained from a high MPE or low MPE cow. The GIT microbiota will be tracked down over calf development and downstream MPE for each animal will be assessed into first lactation. No work like this one has been reported in this area, and thus this study is entirely novel. We believe that the ability to form a desired rumen microbiota in adult dairy cows by altering its establishment during calf development has the potential to be transformative and would substantially impact the dairy industry globally. (AU)